You'll love these simple, fresh lemon tarts with no finicky crusts. Just bite-sized lemony-goodness with a sweet cookie crust.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change. Not big, drastic, life-altering change, but the sort of small nuances that keep us on our toes and make us feel like we are moving towards something bigger. Maybe I've just been eating too many of World's Best Whole Wheat Pancakes and just need to liven up my breakfast routine.
If you buy into the broad strokes used to paint entire generations of people, at 32, I fall into a strange gap between the “millennials” and Gen X. We’re a group that, if Buzzfeed is to be considered a reliable source, has a bit of an identity crisis.
Unfortunately, I do relate to the stereotype that many of us in this generation are never quite satisfied. Instead of living in the moment, we're always looking ahead to the next thing.
People sometimes assume that living abroad is, in itself, an ongoing adventure. I thought it too before moving to Thailand. Many things about this life are exciting, but it's not the long, leisurely vacation I pictured it to be. As it turns out, just like anywhere else, we still wake up to alarms, grumble through our morning commutes, get home late with no plan for dinner, curl up on the couch with a mug of tea to watch Top Chef.
And really, it's a good thing. Not every moment can hold an adventure - the ones that do would start to lose their magic.
For all my pondering about the next “big” thing – where we will live when we move home to the U.S., what job I will have, even what car I will drive – I’d do better if I just let it go. (We're not moving home any time soon, after all.)
I try to remember that, if we give them a little space our lives construct themselves in ways that are unexpected, sometimes scary, and often so very wonderful. Never in a million years would I have imagined mine would bring me to Bangkok. That is a change that just happened to come along at exactly the right time.
For all my planning and thinking ahead, I know this moment is worth holding onto. There are Saturday afternoons of baking the world’s simplest lemon tarts with a sugar cookie crust and Sunday brunches spent with friends, sipping mimosas and eating pumpkin cheesecake bites.
Despite my inner generation-whateverness that makes me yearn for some new twist, the stuff that's happening right now is pretty good too.
More Bite Sized Desserts
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites
- Apple Cider Donut Mini Muffins
- Bite-Sized Chocolate Brownie Cookies with Candy Cane Topping
- Mini Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
- Mini Lime Cheesecakes
- Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pecan Pies
- Chocolate Chip Brownie Tarts
- Mini Cheesecakes
- Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookie Cups
- Chocolate-Dipped Banana Bread Truffles
Favorite Tools
- Stand or Handheld Mixer
- Parchment Paper Sheets
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Anchor 3-Piece Glass Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Cooling Rack
Sugar Cookie Lemon Tarts
Equipment
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Stand or Handheld Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 8 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, softened (115 g)
- ½ cup Granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1 Egg
- 1 ½ cup All-Purpose Flour (190 g)
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 pinch Salt
For the Lemon Filling:
- 2 Eggs
- 3 Egg Yolks
- ¼ cup Whipping Cream
- juice from 1 large lemon
- ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
For Topping:
- 4 tablespoon Powdered Sugar, divided
- ½ cup Whipping Cream
Instructions
- To make the sugar cookie crust, in a standing mixer (or by hand) beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes oh high. Add the egg and mix on medium until fully incorporated. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt all at once and mix on medium just until no spots of flour remain, about 20 seconds (do not overmix). Wrap the dough in parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.
- While the oven is preheating, make the lemon filling by whisking together the eggs, egg yolks, whipping cream, lemon juice, and granulated sugar until smooth.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Divide the dough into quarters and divide each quarter into six even balls of dough. Press each ball of dough it into a space in the muffin tin. Using your thumbs, press the dough into the tin so that it is evenly distributed along the sides and bottom. (Don't worry if it is a bit thinner in some places than others.) Pour the lemon filling into the center of each sugar cookie cup, stopping just below the top of the crust.
- Bake until the filling is set and the crust begins to turn golden, 10-12 minutes. (Do not over bake - pull the tarts out just when you see any golden color on the crusts.) Allow these to cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Before serving, dust the tops of the tarts with 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar. Beat the whipping cream with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon the whipping cream on top of each tart. Serve chilled.
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Liz
Thanks Jess. Love your emails and little stories. Your life sounds exciting to me.
Stephanie
I seem to have extra lemon filling. How long can I save it for?
Jess Smith
You can save it in the fridge for up to 3 days, or just bake the leftover batter by itself in a mini muffin tin (the timing should be similar).
Anne ~ Uni Homemaker
Jess, this sugar cookie lemon tart looks delicious and so cute! Pinning for sure. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and stories with us. I always enjoy visiting your blog. Have a great day. 🙂
Jess
Thanks so much Anne - so glad to have found your blog as well - so much inspiration!
Claire @ Claire K Creations
Well you may be between generations but you're definitely on the side of brilliant pastry chef. These look wonderful and perfect to use some of my lemons!
sally @ sallys baking addiction
I am ALWAYS thinking/planning ahead. I need to start living in the moment a bit more! Your post reminds me to do just that. And I love lemon desserts. Love love love. The little cookie tarts are so cute!
Erin @ The Emerging Foodie
Such truth in what you have to say; I love that you shared your thoughts. And that you shared these beautiful tarts! They look amazing. Your photography is beautiful.
Ashley
These sugar cookie tarts are so cute! They came out beautiful. I completely agree with everything you said - I often get so focused on goals or what's ahead that I forget to appreciate what is right now. And that needs to change. It's something I constantly try to work on ... whether successful or not : )
Monica
Oh boy - I'm drooling over lots of food I see on your site here, including these sugar cookie lemon tarts (I love lemon tarts!). They look scrumptious. : ) And all from Bangkok - wow!
Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl
These lovely lemon tarts are beautiful, each one looks perfect! Your words of advice really hit home to me seeing as I am always looking in the future and I find it hard to enjoy or even be proud of the current moment. Thanks for that.
Shashi @ https://runninsrilankan.com
These lemon tarts look GREAT!
I fall in the in-between generation too! It took me awhile to figure out the joy and importance of enjoying the "now".
Great post! Awesome clicks!
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles
I don't often embrace change well, or at least it takes me a bit to come around. But somehow you manage to talk about it in such a sweet way. Lovely words. And those lemon tarts look fabulous, something our girls would absolutely love.
Dan from Platter Talk
These lemon tarts look just perfect for a hot August afternoon. Lovely post!!
Erika
Oh my gosh I LOVE these!! I totally hate dealing with pie crust so I love the idea of using cookies (!!!) as crust. I'm usually such a chocolate fanatic but I've been on a lemon bender lately and so these.have.me.salivating. I love the assembly photos!!
Lyn
Lovely tarts. May I know if the pastry after baking is supposed to be soft? Many thanks
Jess
Hi Lyn - the pastry is very much the same texture as a sugar cookie - it should be firm but still soft. Hope that helps!
Susan
Hi, do you think you can make these ahead and freeze them?
thanks!
Susan
Jess
I haven't tried it, Susan, but I'm sure you could! With most baked goods, I like to bake them about half the time indicated and then freeze them and finish baking them once they come out of the freezer. That might work well with this recipe.
Samantha
These look lovely! I do have a question though...I've been searching for a recipe for standard muffin-sized lemon tarts (I don't have a mini pan at the moment, I'm living overseas for a few months and I've been trying to keep my purchasing to a minimum), but all lemon tart recipes I've found are either for a full-size tart or mini ones. Do you think I'd be able to make this recipe into 12 muffin-sized tarts, with increased baking time of course?
robyn
hi, do you find these have enough "lemon". and do you pre whip the cream before adding it to the filling?
thanks!
Elaine
I baked these and for some reason they filling looks eggy, a light yellow color when done and not like the picture. What could I have done wrong.? Help! Really want to make these look pretty as they are yummy. Thanks so much!
Jess
Elaine, I doubt you did anything at all wrong. I suspect it just has to do with the color of the yolks of your eggs. The eggs I use are very fresh with very bright yellow yolks. You might try picking some eggs up at a farmer's market or using some that you just bought from the store to see if that helps, but the color of egg yolks are so variable that this might be difficult to fix. Glad you liked the tarts though!!!
Lisa wagner
Is the yellow supposed to be runny?
Jess
Hi Lisa - the filling should definitely not be runny. It's possible that they didn't cook quite long enough. Cook the tarts until the yellow filling is cooked all the way through.
Jess
Lisa - one more thought on this. Do make sure that the tarts cool completely at room temp - this will help them to set correctly.
Chaitra
Hi Jess,
I want to try these for my party this weekend. But i am a bit concerned about not baking the cookies once before the filling is added. Is it fine just to par bake the cookies for about 8 mins and then bake them with the curd for 2 mins or so?
Jess
Hi Chaitra! I wouldn't recommend baking the cookies first. Since these tarts are so small, the recipe has been tested so that the cookie and the filling will all finish baking at the same time. If you bake the cookie crust first, I'm afraid it will dry out and the filling may not cook all the way through.
Sharon
I want to put a filling into precooked shells. Could I bake these prior to filling and then add a filling? I was thinking about lemon curd, precooked cake filling or a whipped ganache filling. Could these just be precooked?
Girija
Hi...luv dsimple recipe n wud luv to try it bt I hv a ques. to ask..do u hv to use unsalted butter?? Can i make it with normal yellow butter??
paula
can key lime juice be substituted for lemon juice?
Jess
Paula - it's worth a shot! I've never tried these with key lime juice, but I imagine it would work just fine.
Lianna
beautiful
Aier
hi,
I saw your recipe on Pinterest, cameto your page for the recipe and found that you live in Thailand.
What a narrow World Wide Web! I live in Bangkok and hope you enjoy your moment here.
I'm gonna try this recipe today, and will let you know my result.
Thank you for the yummy sweets.
Maryann
Hi! I love this recipe so easy.. Can you tell me if I put in refrigerated case, how many days do you think they last for?
Thanks so much
Maryann
Jess
Maryann - I've had them last 2-3 days without getting too dried out! If I'm just making them for us, I put the whipped cream on the top and just refrigerate them in a baking dish with tall sides covered with foil (to protect the topping), but if I have time before serving them, I'll refrigerate them for a day or two and put the whipped cream on the top just before serving. Glad you like the recipe! It's one of my favorites!
Brittany Matthews
These look scrumptious! Is it possible to do these in a standard size cupcake pan? And if so, how would I need to adjust the baking time/temp? Thank you!
Jess
Brittany - I haven't tried these in a standard cupcake pan because the filling cooks through just the right amount in miniature form. I'm afraid that if they were made full-size the cookie crust might get too crisp before the filling is totally cooked. It's totally worth a shot though - if you do it let me know how it turns out!
nadia
i made these for my niece's birthday and they were AMAZING! They disappeared quickly. Definately a keeper!
Jess
So glad to hear it, Nadia! Thank you for the note!
Alyssa
Could I use lemon pudding?
Jess
Hi Alyssa, I have tried it, but I'm sure it would work. I'd probably cook the tart shells, let them cool, and then add the pudding at the end though - no need to cook the pudding again in the shells.
Andrea
Hi!
I'm not a native English speaker, so I'm wondering when you list 2 eggs and 3 yolks separately, does that mean that I have to use 2 whole eggs including whites and yolks PLUS 3 extra yolks, or do you mean just 2 egg whites and 3 yolks separately?
Thanks
Jess
Hi Andrea - your first statement is right. You'll need five eggs total - 2 total eggs and 3 that you'll just use the yolks. Hope that helps! Thank you for reading!
Megha
These lemon tarts look amazing!! The only thing is I don't eat or cook with eggs...I usually substitute eggs with applesauce and this will probably work for the sugar cookie portion, but how would you recommend changing the filling so that it is eggless?
Jess
Megha - egg yolks hold the filling together in this recipe since it is similar to a custard, so it might be difficult to recreate. That said, I have a feeling that silken tofu might be a good substitute in this recipe. I'd blend it all together to get it nice and smooth, but I think the silken tofu will mimic the texture and consistency of the filling. Hope that helps! Do let me know how it turns out!
Cmb
In other recipes I’ve used:
1/4cup water
1-1/2Tablespoon chia seeds to substitute for an egg. Stir together, seeds gelatinize in 2-3 minutes.
Linda Tomson
I made these lil tarts last night and they turned out looking beautiful. I did notice however the cookie shell was really thick with only a spot of lemon filling. Is that how they were suppose to turn out? I used a bottle cap to push the dough down making the holes for the filling. they seemed ok when i filled them but wonder if i did something wrong in not making the holes bigger or used too much dough? Has anyone found this same issue?
Nicole
The lemon tarts look delicious. Can they be frozen?
Jess
Yes - I think they should freeze well. Though I haven't frozen the finished tarts, I have frozen the dough and just defrosted it and formed the tarts when I was ready to bake them.
Katie
Do you think that I could replace the whipping cream with greek yogurt for the lemon filling?
Jess
Katie - I haven't tried that sub, but my instinct is that, yes - you could sub greek yogurt for the whipping cream. Let me know how it turns out!
Larissa D
Hi Jess,
I just made the lemon tarts and was wondering if they were supposed to be eggy (scrambled) looking. I followed the recipe exactly the way you said to do it. I had to cook them a few minutes longer because the crust wouldn't brown.
Jess
Hi Larissa - I've never had the filling appear scrambled, but it may just be that the ingredients in the filling weren't fully combined, so they separated a bit while baking. This shouldn't affect the taste, but may just not look quite like in the photo. I pull mine out of the oven just as the crust starts to develop some color, so I try to avoid too much browning on the crust so they don't over-bake. Thanks so much for chiming in!
plasterer bristol
My favorite of all time. So delicious. Awesome recipe.
Simon
Jess
Thanks so much for letting me know Simon!
Carol
I have some store- bought pastry tart shells that I am hoping to use for this recipe in place of the cookie pastry. I am thinking that they will cook much the same. Do you think that will work?
Jess
Hi Carol - store-bought pastry tart shells will definitely work! I think the cook time should be very similar, just watch them carefully and pull them out of the oven as soon as the centers look like they've set.
Lauren Frizzell
These didn't work at all for me. The first time, I used a different sugar cookie recipe. Those didn't work out, so I remade them. Both times, the curd rose way more than it should have. I filled it well below the top of the dough, and it still rose to spilling over the muffin pan. I followed the filling recipe exactly both times.
Jess
Hi Lauren - I'm so sorry to hear that these didn't turn out! Truthfully, I'm not sure what could have happened. Every time I've made them, I've filled the cookie cups to the level shown in the photos and never had them overflow. This recipe is on my list to re-test in early 2017, so I'll definitely see if I can get to the bottom of the issue. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know.
Beulah
Could store bought dough be used?
Jess
Hi Beulah - I've had others tell me that they used store-bought dough and had great success with it. I need to try it myself, but I'm sure it would work!
Cindy
If im using premade homemade lemon curd, trying to not just eat it with a spoon, would i still add the cream? I don't like crust so I'm very excited about the cookie idea! So pretty thanks for sharing!
Jenn waters
This is the 3rd time making these for Easter. So so good, always a huge hit. Love this recipe and lemon tarts.
John02
Thanks for sharing!
Jacqueline
Do these lemon tarts freeze well
Jess
Hi Jacqueline - I've never had much luck with freezing the whole tarts. I have made the shells (but baked them for just about 5 minutes until they were set) and frozen them, then filled and re-baked until the filling set. It worked but they still weren't quite as good as when baked and served as written.
Ciera C.
Can you use premade sugar cookie dough for this?
Jess Smith
Yes! Premade sugar cookie dough works great here.
Angel
Excellent post
Thanks
Esther
Could this recipe be adapted for full size muffin tins for a more substantial sized dessert?
Jess Smith
It should work fine in a regular muffin tin, though the balance of dough to filling might be off since it was tested for a mini muffin tin.